What It Means to Surrender — Corrie Ten Boom

This is tape number 1814 in the Inspirational Tapes library. Corrie Ten Brun speaks on the subject, What It Means to Surrender.

Now when I sit now for the last time here for this period, for this year, I ask you again to praise and especially praise that the Lord will give that message what we need at the close of this week. So we have together listened to what the Holy Spirit has to tell us.

He will speak to us tonight again. Praise that I will not stand in the way when God will speak to us. Praise that you and everyone may understand it, especially with what it means to surrender. There are many barriers for surrender.

And when I have talked with many people this week, I find out that there is a group of people, perhaps not too many, but some who are just not sure what it means to surrender. And that will make it very complicated.

We are a little bit in a mud. We are afraid. And just today I got a very good little poem. A centipede was quite happy until a frog in the sun said, I ask you, which leg comes after which? This race, his mind so to such a pitch, he lay distracted in a ditch, considering how to run.

And I thought of my slogan, keep it simple, stupid. And you know, when the devil tells you now you must put this first and then that, and surrender means this theology and surrender means this teaching of this church and this teaching of that church, then you are just at last a centipede laying in a ditch.

And you know, it is very simple. Surrender is trust and hope. That's all. And what a joy. What a joy is it when you do it. And what a joy I have seen in the faces of many of you who at last grasped it and you did it.

And I hope that all of you tonight who have still no steps back will say that, yes, Lord, here is my life. And I do not, I am not afraid any longer. And you take that germ from the diving board. Is that a good word?

Diving board? You know what I sometimes, I always fear for that, this germ, but I hope you will do it. And when you do it and you throw yourself there in full surrender and you think it is a jump into darkness, you are fine.

That is to jump in the loving arms of Jesus. And I have traveled over the whole world, many countries. I've talked with many people and I've never heard anyone who said, I am sorry that I have surrendered to the Lord Jesus.

And you will not be sorry. I don't say that it will not be a battle. I believe that the devil is very interested in surrendered Christians. The man in the liquor store is not interested for him. He has him already.

But when you are a surrendered Christian, boy, he likes to kick you down. But then you will find that although it is a battle, you stand at the victorious side, because, like I said last night, at your side is a mighty high priest and legions of angels.

And you stand on victory ground and you live from victory unto victory, more than conquer Jesus makes you. Yes. And then it is so very important in this time that you can know when you are a surrendered Christian that you are one who is ready for Jesus coming.

Someone asked me today, why do you believe that Jesus is coming to me? And I said, when I read in the Bible, the signs of the times, whom the Lord Jesus taught us, then I see many signs of the time now in the newspapers.

And of course, I could give you a whole week teaching about prophecy, but I will not do that. The only very important thing is what I think I will repeat, how to be ready for Jesus coming. But I will mention some of the signs of the times because you asked me.

These are fulfilled already. Distress of nations with perplexity that I have found over the whole world. Men's hearts are failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming. And I can tell you that is not the least in America.

In America, I spoke with people in Washington, D .C., and they said in the first atomic bomb, a hydrogen bomb, will fall in America on Washington, D .C. And in Colorado Springs, they said the first bomb will fall on Colorado.

And in New York, they said the same, and in Chicago, and in Los Angeles. And that is because man's heart is failing them by fear and of looking for the things that can happen. And it is no nonsense. It is true that we live in a world that is on the verge of explosion, but the great joy is when you know the secret of God's plan that you do not fear even when the earth should be removed and the mountain should fall into the depths of the sea.

When you have surrendered yourself to Jesus, then you know that you are never alone. And that's why it's very important that we go into this common period, that time that the Antichrist will take over the most of the world, that you stand in the whole armor of God that you can read in Ephesians 6 and 10 till 20, and you will see the armor of God is Jesus himself.

He in you, you in him. With Jesus, hidden in God. Do you see that sons of you, this is Jesus, this is God? Then the devil has to go through God and through Jesus before he can reach you. It is so strange to be in the hands of people, especially in this time that the world has people whose hearts are failing them by fear.

War, rumors of war. Nation shall rise up against nation. Famine, pestilences, earthquakes. The Jews come back in their country. I was in West America on the 10th of May in 48, when the nation of Israel had come to birth in one night.

And I remember that my hostess took the telephone and she phoned it to her friends and she said, the nation of Israel has come. The Jews go back to their country. Jesus is coming very soon, hallelujah.

And then suddenly I thought she's right. It was one of the very clear signs of the time. Then you shall be, shall be hosted of all nations for my name's sake. Yes, that is already in many countries, and it is also in a part of America.

I can tell you Christian students have a difficult time in your universities, and it is possible when you surrender today a hundred percent, or you have done it this week, and you have surrendered for service, that you have to suffer for people, and that people will hate you.

For we have heard what is written in Revelation 22, that the wicked man continue his wickedness, and the filthy man his filthiness. Let a good man continue his good deeds, and the holy man continue in holiness.

Everything goes to the top. Those who are filthy will be filthier, those who are holy and clean will be cleaner and holy. And that is what is now happening in your life. Today can be a dividing day. It can be or either.

It can be that you are filthy, and you go with a compromise in your surrender, and then you will be filthier and filthier, and you go down. Or, you go and surrender absolutely to the Lord, and then you are clean, but you will be cleansed.

It goes from victory to victory. And your decision can be very important. What will happen in your life this coming day, and also in eternity. Many false prophets will deceive many, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall walk cold.

When you know that you have lost your first love, then I can only challenge you to repent, for otherwise you are in great danger. But when the Bible tells us what happens when you lose your first love, then the Lord will take away your lampstand and accept your repentance, and that is the great joy that the cure of repentance is white oak.

And when you really, if you are in such a position that you know my love is not what it was some time ago, then repent. And when you repent and surrender, then the Lord will empty you, and what he empties, he will cleanse with his blood, and what he cleanses with his blood, he will fill with the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love, a far greater love as the love, your first love.

So, repent and surrender. Many shall run through and through. Knowledge shall increase. Isn't that one of the most clear signs of the times? And you think that men can travel in space. Yes, I know that Jesus, I believe that very sure that Jesus is coming.

He's coming very soon, and I believe that it is very good when you study the Bible, how can I be ready for Jesus coming? And the answer is what I said is with the surrender. The surrender is not only that you get rid of your unhappiness from the difficulties and the strife in your life, that you are victorious, you have no fear.

The surrender is also to be ready for the coming of the Lord, for he who has done a good work in you will then perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And when you surrender to the Lord Jesus, then you can say, I know the one in whom I have placed my confidence, and I am perfectly certain that the work I have committed to him is safe in his hands until that day.

And to the end, he may establish your heart unflamable in holiness before God, even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see how very, very important it is that you surrender, for we are in the time that terrible things can happen, for we see already that the illiteracy abounds.

When we read science, when we read Saturday Evening Post, when we read these things, what is happening in America, and you don't know the other answer than that you can say, Lord Jesus, come soon and make everything anew, is the only answer in the terrible delinquency of this time.

And I don't see that there is any answer for this in psychology, or psychiatry, or philosophy. The only answer is the coming of the Lord Jesus who has said, I come and I will make everything anew. You know, it is very possible that you will have, that you will come, and I too, in the time that it will happen, terrible things around us and in our lives, when the enemy will try to get us down, when the devil will try to knock us out.

Some people do not believe in the devil. I heard that some people say that the devil is dead and gone. But sensible people should like to know who carries the business of it. I can tell you I believe that a devil exists, and if you don't believe it, then just try to resist him one week, and then tell me after that week if he exists.

You know, but we were not free. The same man who taught William Naganda, who taught Connie and me to walk in the light, he once told us a very good illustration. He said that the devil makes it very difficult for William, and sometimes he gives him a glow downwards that William comes in the depths of the deepest depths.

But the great joy is when you belong to the Lord Jesus, here in the deepest depths is Jesus, and he gives William a glow upward that is some higher than he was before. And he took a ball and he said, so it will go.

Now, I'm sorry that it did not jump so very well. But when William chose it, it went far better. When he put it down, then it went very high. But then he said, you know, once the devil will give William a glow so terrible that he comes right into the valley of the shadow of death.

But that Jesus will give William a glow upward that he comes all the way to heaven, and then the devil will say, he was William. Isn't that good? And you see, that is now the joy of a surrendered life.

That negro, that African, that saint, he knows what it means to have a surrendered life, and the fear is awake. And that is one of the things for you in your life. Your fear will go. You'll run away. And the strange thing is that it is just that fear that gets you back.

There are some who are so afraid to surrender, then they think, oh, then when I surrender, then my friends will call me a holy ghost. And you know, that is good. But you know, they are afraid what their parents say, what their brothers say, their wives, their husbands.

Fear. And I think when the Bible is written in Revelation 21, then you hear what happens with the fearful and the thieves and the unclean and the whores and the murderers and the abominables. A terrible list of sinners.

The first that are mentioned are fearful. So fearfulness is a great sin. And I believe that fearfulness to surrender is a terrible, great sin. What do you do with a sin? You try? You try to fight your fear?

That word try I hear here far too much. It is not try, but trust. When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us. And when you are fearful to surrender, say, Lord, forgive us.

And then the Lord will forgive you. And then you will turn away in his power from this fearfulness. Yes, you know, that poem of this missionary brother Joel, God gives men who are fearless when seeking the lost, men who will follow whatever it costs.

I know it is more than losing your life for Jesus' sake, but that means you win. I was in Poland and there was a young man who heard when Tony and I talked with the children of that family. He was their uncle.

And it was such a joy when we saw one of the children after the other come to the Lord. But always when he saw that one of the children said, Oh, Lord Jesus, will you come into my heart? He jumped up and ran away.

And after the children were in bed, he came back. And I had to talk with him. I said, Why did you run away? Were you running away from the Lord? Were you afraid that he should challenge you to give your life to him?

He said, Yes. And I said, Now you have to choose. The Lord will make you a happy child of God, who has a future in the house of the Father, with many mentions. But you must receive him. And I showed him what could happen when he did it, about a peace fast and all understanding, a joy unspeakable and full of glory, a love amazing.

And then at last he said, Oh, stop it. I cannot do it. And I long to do it, but I cannot do it. I said, Why not? He said, Because I am a teacher. And when a teacher in Poland becomes a Christian, then he loses his job.

For the communists are very afraid that children should be educated by Christians. Then I said, All right, now you have to choose. A good job, and perhaps enough money, and perhaps a happy life, but an eternity without Jesus, and without God, and without you.

Eternity in tradition. You take up your cross and you follow Jesus, and you are like the grain of wheat that goes into the earth, and so dies and brings forth fruit. What will you choose? And he said, I will not be lost for eternity.

I need Jesus Christ. And I went on his knees, and we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. I don't know what happened to him, what has happened. I hope to meet him again when I go next month, or over two months to Poland, pray for him.

But this I know that I will meet him in heaven. And when you are afraid for a life in this time that means cross burn, dying, then I fear that I will not see you in heaven. I read a little poem. When all the great plants of our cities have turned out their last finished work, when our merchants have made the last bargain and dismissed the last tired slur, when our banks have raked in the last dollar and have paid out the last dividend, when the judge of the earth says, close for the night and ask for a balance, when the choir has sung its last anthem, and the preacher has said his last prayer, when the people have heard their last sermon, and the sound has died out on the earth, when the Bible lies closed on the pulpit, and the pews are all empty of men, when each one stands facing his record, and the great book is open, what then?

When the actors have played their last drama, and the mimic has made his last run, when the movies have left the last picture, and the billboard displays its last run, and the proud citizens have vanished and have gone into darkness again, and the world that rejected its savior is asked for a new one, when the bugle's last call sings in silence, and the lone marching column stands still, and the captain has given his last order, and they have captured their last shot, when the flag has been hauled from the mountain, and the wounded in the field have set in, when the trumpet of ages is sounded, and we stand up before him, for he shall not be afraid of evil silence, his heart is fixed thrusten in the Lord, that's what the psalmist said about the surrendered as a body.

Peter has said very much about the tribulation that we Christians have to go through. Some people believe that the Christians will be translated before the tribulation comes, and I believe that there is a translation of the church, but when I read the bible, I know that we have to go through a tribulation, perhaps the past, and if you ask it me, then I hope for whenever the world has had a need for spiritual Christians without fear, then it will be in the time of the tribulation, when all the securities of this world have disappeared, and then the world needs the security in Jesus Christ and Christians who are brave and courageous witnesses.

My friends, there's work to do, a tremendous work, and it grows darker and darker in this world, and you are called to be the light of the world, and you can be it, and I can tell you I have been in a time of horrible tribulation, when I was in that concentration camp where 97 ,000 women were killed or died, the surroundings of people who had had a place in cruelty, then all the security had vanished, and what a joy it was for Betsy, my sister, and me, that I could tell these people, come to Jesus, and he will give you peace and joy now, and he will give you eternal life.

Oh, what a joy! You cannot understand that, but there was in Betsy and me often a almost celestial joy, when we saw that these poor people around us came from despair in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and when I was now with Connie in Africa, in places where there was a terrible tension, and was murdering, and a great danger for Christians, there I felt that pain almost exhaled a joy.

I have an answer for these people. I have a message. I can tell them that whatever happens in the life of a child of God, the best remains, and the very best is yet to be, and there is no sorrow in God tomorrow, but I sang with a group of people in Utumbura, in the streets by and by, oh, what just moved my heart, and half of the congregation that same week were in the streets by and by.

Do you know that you and I are the only people who have a message in a time of tribulation? Only the real thing, only the real message of Jesus Christ can help them. No philosophy, no wishy-washy, mumbling religion can help the people.

Only Jesus Christ can do it, and he will speak through you if you surrender and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then in this time then the rivers of living water will flow through you and touch people.

But you and I haven't, and Peter said, after you have borne these sufferings a very little while, God himself, from whom we receive all grace, and who has called you to share his eternal splendor through Christ, he will make you whole, secure, and strong.

Yes, also you who are now almost trembling when you think of that time, the moment that it comes, you will have the grace. I was in that temple, I told that already, but the Lord tells me that I must tell it to again.

The Bible was a forbidden book, and they had a terrible cruel way of killing a prisoner who had read for others the Bible. Now I told you this week that it was so dirty in that room where I was together with 700 fellow prisoners, that we had many lies, and the guards and the officers would never come into our room because they were afraid to get lies from us.

The Bible was a forbidden book, but in our room we had twice a day a Bible meeting, and God used for that life, God can use everything. And what a joy it was to bring these people, where many were going to die, many were going to be killed, there to bring from the boundless resources, the rivers of living water from the Word of God.

But one of us was the head of the room, and she was responsible for our behavior. And in my book, A Prisoner in Church, you can read that once we had a new head of the room, her name was Loni. She was terrible cruel, she was a bad criminal, she had always a leather belt in her hand to whip us.

Everything we did, she told the guards and the officers. And one day I opened my Bible to give my daily Bible message, I did it twice a day. And when I opened the Bible, my friends said, don't do it, Loni is sitting behind you.

And when she sees that you have a Bible, then she will tell it and you will be killed in a cruel way. I didn't know what to do. I said, Lord, we cannot wait out the light of your Word in this dark prison.

Give me the courage, the strength, Lord, to read the Bible and to give the text. The Lord did. You see, He made me so secure and strong. And I gave the message, and after I had given the message, I read the Word of God, and we prayed, and then we sang a song.

It was a Dutch song, the tale for us to wait, and trust thy way on the Lord. And when we were through with singing, we heard a voice, another song like that. It was Loni. We had enjoyed the singing, and we sang a psalm, Psalm 42.

And when we had finished the psalm, we heard a voice, another psalm like that. It was again Loni. What a joy. That was the happy end. No, the happy end was that I could show Loni the way of salvation.

But friends, I am not a hero. When you know that every word that you say can mean a cruel death, every word is heavy as lead. But never before or after that talk, I have felt such a peace and joy in my heart.

God gave me grace to be a martyr. I have now no grace to be a martyr. I don't need it. But I know this from experience. When you are called, and when I will be called to be a martyr, that the Lord gives all the grace.

And don't forget that for a martyr's way, a martyr's cry. Life is short, eternity is long. Paul himself says in Romans 8, 18, in my opinion, whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us.

The whole creation is on tiptoes to see the wonderful sight of the children of God coming into their own. Isn't that remarkable? And it is true, the whole creation in this time is on tiptoes to see what God is doing, the wonderful sight of you and me coming into their own, our own.

In a concentration camp, the guards and the officers had all the power they wanted to have. If they wanted it, they could kill us in the most cruel way. But there was a small group of prisoners, starving, dirty, full of life, just on the point of starvation.

Poor prisoners, so poor as you have never seen anyone. But this group of prisoners came together every day and had their prayer meeting. And I can tell you that group of dirty, starving prisoners had far more power than all the officers and guards together.

And I will never forget that one of my friends was ill and she had lost courage. It's dangerous to lose courage in a concentration camp that means that you die. The only hope and courage keeps you alive.

And I tried to visit her, but it was not possible. And then I went to our prayer group and we prayed, Oh God, make the way open that we can visit Will. And then we went. The whole little prayer group.

And we went to the barracks where Will was, the hospital barracks. And when we came, and then in a little corner, we prayed, Lord, make that Corrie can speak with Will. And they remained in prayer and I went to the window behind which Will was.

But when I came there, the shutters were closed. I went back and we prayed, Lord, will you open the shutters? And then they remained praying for the shutters. And I went and I saw a police, a street police.

Police women were fellow prisoners who had to discipline us in the street. And they were often very cruel. But they helped me without knowing it because she opened the shutters. But now I saw, I waited till she had disappeared.

And then I tried the window, but you could not open the window from outside. So I went to our prayer corner and I said, no, not only the shutters, but now the window. And we prayed for the shutters. No, we thanked for for the shutters and we prayed for the window.

And they remained praying and I went back and I saw a Polish woman who opened the window. Now I saw Will. I said, Will, can you understand me? Oh, she said, I'm so glad that you come. Corrie, I cannot stand the terrible pain that I suffered.

And I'm so homesick for my baby in Holland. Did I ever see it again? That moment, a police woman came and she whipped me and she said, go on, you may not talk with a sick. I went to our prayer corner and we thanked for the shutters and for the windows.

But then we prayed that the Lord would send away all police women. And when I came there, I could speak with and I could tell her, oh, Billy, the suffering of this time is not worthy to be compared with the common glory.

And when we must suffer much pain, think about the pain that Jesus has carried for you at the cross to save you for eternity. And that helps you and that will make you so thankful that you can carry your own suffering and you will see your baby again, perhaps in Holland, perhaps in heaven.

And don't forget that Jesus has said, Lord, I'm with you always till the end of the earth. And Jesus is with you. You can talk to him night and day. And I brought her that old, old story of Jesus and his love.

And at last, he said, oh, Corrie, I see it again. I will not lose courage anymore. And that moment, police woman came and whipped me and she closed the shutters and the window. But I went in our prayer corner and we praised and thanked the Lord that Jesus' victory had been again demonstrated in our problems, that our problems again had been the material for God's miracle.

Now, I tell you this, and I challenge you, have one, have two, have ten, have twenty prayer meetings every week. The Lord has talked to us this week, and now I must go tomorrow. But what the Lord has done, the enemy cannot stick away.

The Lord himself will protect the seed that is sown in your hearts and in the churches. And before many of you have humbled yourself for the Lord, the Lord will heal your land, your church, campus, or wherever you live.

But you will be a strategic point for the enemy, and so will be your church and your town. And what you can do is pray. The devil, he laughs when we ask, until all the ears in the work for the Lord. But he trembles when we pray.

And when the devil cannot keep you back, then he comes behind you and he pushes you. Then you go on like a merry-go-round. He trembles when you pray. And we have understood this week that the Lord again and again has said that is not what we do, and what we work, and what we strive, and what we strive.

That is how much the Lord can do through us. And that's all. And you can read it in 1 Corinthians 13. If you give your body to be burned, if you know all the secrets of God, if you have all the gifts of the Spirit, and you have no love, you have nothing at all.

That's not right? Nothing at all? And that's why I again say in the name of the Lord Jesus, surrender. Surrender 100 percent, not 99, but 100 percent. And your land shall be healed. And come together again and again in prayer groups, here in the church, in your home, and everywhere.

And make the devil tremble very much when you pray together. For he trembles when you are on your knees, but he trembles more when Christians are together to pray. For when there are even two or three in the name of Jesus together, Jesus is in the midst of them.

When my father entered into prison, he was 84 years old. And he died after 10 days. Prison life is very difficult for an old man. But when he entered, he said to me, Corrie, the best he said to me, Peter says, dear friends of mine, I beg you not to be unduly alarmed at the fiery ordeals which come to test your faith.

As though this were some abnormal experience. You should be glad, because it means that you are called to share Christ's sacrifice. One day, when he shows himself in full splendor to men, you will be filled with the most tremendous joy.

That's God's point of view. Raise up your mind, and as men who know what they are doing, rest the full weight of your hopes on the grace that will be yours when Jesus Christ reveals himself. You know God is working a plan.

He's working straight through the terrible times. He's workers out. And God's plan is being worked out. There will be no closed doors on the mission field, and no rockets speeding towards your city until he permits.

There are no second thoughts. God has the whole universe in his hands. And the hairs of your head are numbered. A telescopic and a microscopic interest in you. Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith.

Live like men. Be strong. Let everything that you do be done in love. Think that's possible? Can you be strong? Just read Ephesians 6. Be strong in the Lord. And don't think that when you have a compromise in your surrender, that you can be strong in the Lord.

For that little, undedicated, unconcentrated thing, that bad habit, that little bit of self, that there'll be a strong hold for the dust. You can never be more than conqueror. And you stand not on the right side.

We must be very sober. Christian and realistic. A Christian can and must be realistic. We know him who has the future in his hands. God has allowed us to know the secret of his plan. We have the blueprint of the Bible.

And the Bible shows us God's side of the embroidery. I remember that once Betsy had the Bible talk. Most of the time she prayed in the time that I spoke. She did much counseling. But she had not opened the whole talk.

She had not seen the gift of bringing a whole talk. She was a very good counselor. But now I had to work somewhere else. And I came back to the barrack, and I heard her talk. And she said, when a house is built, then there is a blueprint.

And then the architect says, here must be a window, here a door, here this, and here that. And she said, when God made the blueprint of your and my life, there was a someplace that the Lord said, here must be this experience in the concentration camp.

And God made never a mistake. And then she showed God's side of the picture. And I can tell you, the people were so moved. And people surrendered to the Lord when she gave this picture. And what a joy it was that we knew that God never made a mistake.

I once was in Japan, and there was an earthquake. I'm afraid for an earthquake. All the security that you have needs. And the building in which we were went up and down. We were on the second story, and the owner said, let us go outside, for we are in a dangerous spot.

When the earthquake is so that it is like waves, then we are not above the center. But when it goes up and down, we are exactly above the center of the earthquake. So we ran out of the house, and I looked around, and I saw a rock.

And I jumped on that rock. Oh, that was not a security. It went up and down, but it was better than the wave. The street became deep holes in the street. And I was glad that I stood on that rock. My friends, do you stand on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, or are you standing on the sinking sand of your own life?

Very important, for there is an earthquake coming, and Jesus is the solid rock. When I was in the solitary confinement, the first four months of my imprisonment, one of the terrible things was that I had nothing to do.

And once I saw there came ants, just a whole group of ants in my cell. And I was so happy that I had something to do. I had come to me. I was no longer in solitary confinement, and I looked out and out how these ants lived.

But then I had to clean the floor of my cell, and I did this very carefully, and suddenly the water came over the ants, and they all disappeared in the little hole in the wall. And I saw at last one little ant, and he also followed the other.

And when I saw that ant disappear into that little hole, I thought that ant does not look on his weak little legs. He did not look at the broom, the rag that had made him wet. He looked at one thing, and that was that little hole in the wall.

And that little hole in the wall you need in the time that is coming, but also now. And that little hole in the wall is Jesus. What a joy! Jesus has come to me, and I give you rest, and I give you peace that passes all understandings.

Come to me, and I will take your sins on me. I know that many of you, or perhaps not many, but some of you are still carrying your past, and carrying your sins, and that is a heavy burden. And as long as you do not come to the talk of surrender, you have to carry your sins, for they must be somewhere.

This book must be somewhere. Now it lays here on the pulpit. It can also lay on the floor, but it must lay anywhere. And your sins must be carried by something, by somewhere. And when you have not brought your sins to Jesus, then you have to carry your sins, if you like it or not.

And that is why your faith is so dark, and you are so in such a tension, and you are so afraid. That is all because you are carrying a heavy load of sins, your own sins, your own past. And now the joy is that in Isaiah 53 you can read that when Jesus died, God has laid on Jesus the sins of us all, also your sins.